Tuesday, February 13, 2007

If current trends continue in the middle of the standings, the ACC tournament’s first appearance in Florida could have a huge impact on which teams receive at-large selections for the NCAA tournament.Gary Walters, Princeton’s athletics director who chairs the Division I men’s basketball committee, said Tuesday that he is observing a "lack of differentiation" among teams competing for at-large bids to the NCAA tournament.Although Walters didn’t mention the ACC by name, it clearly fits his description. As of early Tuesday evening, eight ACC teams were in the RPI ratings’ top 35, according to RealTimeRPI.comVirginia Tech (No. 33), Virginia (34) and Maryland (35) were bunched together. Before Tuesday’s games, seven ACC teams were within one win of a .500 conference record, and nine had at least 16 wins.Walters is hoping for some teams throughout the nation to separate themselves by the end of the regular season."If there isn’t much of that, then we’ll also have the conference tournaments to help us decide what to do," he said during a teleconference with reporters.Walters predicted that conference tournaments will have increased significance this season. If so, fans in Tampa are in for a treat.A few years ago, North Carolina coach Roy Williams referred to the ACC tournament as a big cocktail party. His description is accurate in many seasons in which teams’ NCAA hopes don’t appear to hinge on their ACC tournament performance.But this season, Duke, Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech and Maryland could have their fates decided that weekend. For Carolinas fans hesitant to travel a long distance, the trip might be worthwhile.UNBALANCED SCHEDULING: Walters said unbalanced scheduling in many conferences is causing headaches for committee members as they try to compare teams within those conferences.The ACC, for example, played each conference opponent home and away before expanding to included Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College.Now, ACC teams play some conference opponents twice and others once during the regular season. That means one team’s road to an 8-8 ACC record might be far more different than that of another team.This is one area where crunching the numbers should favor Duke’s strength of schedule in the ACC. Duke meets ACC leaders Boston College and North Carolina twice and also plays twice against Clemson, Maryland, Georgia Tech.Duke plays ACC bottom dwellers Miami, Wake Forest and N.C. State once each. Clemson also plays those three schools once, but meets North Carolina once.Virginia, which meets Miami, Wake Forest and N.C. State twice each and plays once against Boston College and North Carolina, might have the easiest conference schedule.-- Ken Tysiac

About this blog

David Scott has been with the Observer for 28 years and has written about ACC, SEC and other college sports in the Charlotte region. He covers Wake Forest, South Carolina and college soccer for the Observer and (Raleigh) News & Observer.

J.P. Giglio covers the ACC for the News & Observer, where he has worked since 1997, and the Observer.

Andrew Carter covers the North Carolina Tar Heels for the Observer and News & Observer.

Laura Keeley covers the Duke Blue Devils for the Observer and News & Observer. Follow her on Twitter.

Chip Alexander covers the Carolina Hurricanes and college football for the News & Observer, where he has worked since 1979, and the Observer.

Luke DeCock has worked for The News & Observer since 2000. He covered the Carolina Hurricanes and the NHL before becoming a sports columnist for the Observer and News & Observer in August 2008.

Tim Crothers is an author and former senior writer at Sports Illustrated who is joining the sports staff to write a regular column during the rest of the college basketball season.